Social Networking Guide for IT Managers
Sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo help friends stay in touch while LinkedIn and Plaxo mainly connect business users. They are very popular but present new challenges to IT managers.
They seem to have come out of nowhere. For example, Facebook had 1m active users in the UK in February 2007. Today, nine months later, it has 7m users1. This extraordinary growth is part of the problem. Companies risk being caught off guard.
Consider the Risks
Broken privacy and identity theft.
Some services also allow third parties to run applications that have access to users profile. This is a potential privacy risk. People publish a wealth of personal information in their profiles. This makes social networking sites a happy hunting ground for identity thieves and conmen.
Cyber-slacking.
Social networking sites can be addictive and time-consuming. Cyber-slacking is a genuine concern.
Reputation risk.
There is also a risk to your companys reputation. Social networking is more public and less formal than company email. It is also easier to use than blog software. It’s easy to imagine employees posting pictures or text that would embarrass their employer.
Viruses and spyware.
Social networking sites often display advertisements. At MessageLabs, we have seen adverts on several popular sites that install viruses and spyware.
Legal Risks.
It may be tempting to monitor employees use of social networking sites. However, the Data Protection Act 1988 says that employees are entitled to a degree of privacy at work. Similarly, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 sets limits on a companys ability to monitor or record employee communications. It’s a legal minefield. Tread carefully!
Indiscretion.
Inadvertent disclosure of confidential information is also a risk. You wouldn’t publish your organisation chart and phone directory on the internet; but a head-hunter or identity thief can use information on social network sites to reconstruct this kind of information.
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